Yes hunties, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will be available to watch in the US.
Set your alarms for the 3rd October 2019 because the US is about to get a British invasion of the drag kind.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Drag Race UK is going to be available to stream in the US as well as in the UK, so American fans of the show will be able to get their fill of British drag talent.
The show, which was made using British drag queens but uses the same format as the US, will be streamed at the same time both in the UK and US.
The show will premier on the WOW Presents Plus streaming platform, at 3 PM on the 3rd of October.
The UK version will be shown on the BBC iPlayer only, which means you will have to have a British TV license in order to watch the series unless of course, you go to a viewing party!
It’s not know if RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will be available to stream on the Netflix service in the future, like its American counterpart.
The first episode stars the guest judges, Graham Norton and Alan Carr, alongside RuPaul and Michelle Visage.
Other judges confirmed for the season include Ginger Spice – Geri, Twiggy, Cheryl, Andrew Garfield and Maisie Williams.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of folks are innocently curious. But when you’re trying to plan your big day, which to you just feels like any other big day out there, the often repetitive questions from enquiring minds can become just a trifle irritating.
And by the way, I haven’t made any of these up – I was asked all of them at least once in the run up to my wedding.
And by the way again, I know number 9 isn’t a question, but it felt worthy of inclusion.
Yes, yes – I think I saw him at the club meetings, he told me all about it. Now don’t get me wrong, I do love the idea of a bucking-bronco in the shape of a glittery aubergine, but it’s not quite the direction we’re going to go in.
No, that’s true – just the knowledge that there’s still a large chunk of the world who would happily see me executed for being who I am is worry enough. Thank you for giving me some perspective.
And then afterwards to finish off:
Did you know that was the first gay wedding I’ve ever been to? It was much more fun than a normal wedding!
Yes, I agree. It really knocked spots off of that boring one I went to last year, with all the shabby-chic birdcages, hilari-not speeches and tawdry wedding tat … oh wait, that was yours wasn’t it?
★★★★ | There’s a new show in town and it’s queer and curious.
I was excited to go along to a brand new cabaret in Manchester on Saturday night, Queeriosity. It’s going to be held weekly every Saturday at Void/Kiki in Canal Street, Manchester and what’s even better is it’s free entry.
It was the first show on Saturday 14th of September, and I must say I was suitably impressed by what was on offer. I was lucky enough to speak to creator of the show Donna Trump to ask what inspired her to bring this new show to Manchester and she told me “Yes it’s something new and different but you know, it’s something not to be missed. I want to unearth the world of cabaret as it’s known in Manchester. Give everyone a taste of something different. We have great cabaret in Manchester already existing and I just want to show people another wonderful side of it too” and show it they did.
There’s going to be rotating cast and guest performers so each show will be something new and different, with new performances every week with at least 4 performers every week. And if week one is anything to go by, these performers will give it their all to entertain people. All the artists on stage gave it 110% and I could tell all of them really enjoyed what they were doing. But it really wasn’t a standard drag queen show. There was spoken word comedy lipsync, high energy burlesque style and a drag king lipsynching to Hercules songs. I laughed, I cheered and I came away very happy. I have very high hopes that this show will be something amazing. What seems to set this aside is that this is a passion project of Donna and the artists involved and one feels that having a new show like this could certainly help revive the scene in Canal Street. The other great thing is that people are utterly free to come as they feel comfortable. I saw, drag kings and queens, genderfluid people, pups, and every other kind of LGBTQ+ & ally person there and no one gave two hoots as long as you were having a good time. It felt like a very welcoming and safe environment to just kick back and enjoy.
The whole show felt fresh and fun and everyone watching on Saturday really got into it, and seeing the reaction of Donna to the cheers she got at the end shows just how invested she is in this cabaret. I wish her all the luck in taking this forward and I cannot wait to see what she and the other performers come up with next
★★★★★ | Shakespeares Sister. The Singles Party 1988- 2019
Shakespeares Sister blasted onto the scene back in 1988. I’m a lover of the 80’s and yet this passed me by. The whole of the Sacred Heart album was off my radar.
When l did notice Shakespeares Sisters on TOTP, it was with their third single, ‘You’re History’. I was puzzled. Was that Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama? I knew she had left and was replaced by Jacquie O’Sullivan but until now, I had no idea where she had gone.
Fahey was always a little left field in the Rama. You hear stories about the 3 girls getting up to no good, and yet Fahey always looked one step ahead.
I knew nothing about the other woman with the mesmerising soprano shrill of a voice screeching out “YOU’RE HISTORY” from that song. This was all pre-internet days so I had to wait for the latest Smash Hits magazine to find out. She was an American, born in Michigan and went under the name of Marcella Detroit.
Here then are 2 women from widely differing areas of music, coming together and making music like no other music out there. Fahey’s deep tones (sometimes with menace in them) blending in with the soprano pitch beautifully of Detroit’s.
It wasn’t until their second album, Hormonally Yours in 1992 that l really took notice albeit not from their biggest hit ‘Stay’ but from ‘I Don’t Care’. I rushed out and bought the new album and Sacred Heart from 1988.
Suddenly I’m crazy about the Sisters. The tunes, the stories within the music take you all over the place. Little did a 17 year old Stuart know that there was rot building within the Sisters and suddenly the party was over. No third album.
Actually there was a third album released, titled #3 in 2004. Some 12 years after the Sisters split. I have it (I like back catalogues of artists I like even if I’m not keen on an album) and it’s nothing like what we had heard before. Without Detroit’s voice, Shakespeares Sister is missing the edge.
And then comes 2009’s Song’s from the Red Room. There is a good vibe about this album that took almost 7 years to release with 3 songs released since 2002 – 2005 and the final to promote the album, the surprisingly genius “It’s a Trip” in 2010. Reviews for this album were mostly favourable.
But just when the Sisters were at their height, it stopped and nothing since was as successful for Fahey. Detroit did release the excellent though moderately successful ‘Jewel’ in 1994.
And so to 2019 when I spotted the Sisters talking on breakfast TV. Their vicious split, a thing of the past. Fahey, it would seem had put the demons (whatever they really where) behind her and both she and Detroit had started working together. I was excited.
And so to the ‘Singles Party’ album. It is a bit of a greatest hits album. There are 18 songs on CD1 from all the albums Shakespeares Sister released and 2 new songs. CD2 is full of 14 remixes.
It’s ‘All the Queens Horses’ where we find the Sisters kissing and making up and the accompanying video is typical with a hint of irony and malice thrown in. It’s not quite the same kind of music that should have followed from 1992’s seminal album ‘Hormonally Yours’ but it’s a start and to be honest, the Sisters have 27 years of catching up to do.
The CD does include a booklet with an interview about how they reconciled their differences but you are left wanting a bit more dirt. However, I’m just glad they are back together. Long Live the Queens.
A dysfunctional Jewish family is at the heart of the new show Falsettos.
Now playing at The Other Place theatre near Victoria Station, Falsettos is a funny, toe-tapping, well-acted and sung musical set in NYC in the late 70s and early ’80s. But later in the show reality kicks in and the show takes a turn.
The show opens with the hilarious song ‘Four Jews in a Room Bitching.’ The four Jews include Trina (a wonderful Laura Pitt-Pulford), and Marvin (a very good Daniel Boys), who were married with a young son Jason (various actors play the part but on the night I saw it it was a fantastic George Kennedy).
However Marvin turned gay when he meets, and falls in love with, Whizzer (Oliver Savile), and they move in together, leaving Trina single. But the family is recommended to go see a shrink Mendel – (Joel Montague) to accept their new circumstances. It all becomes very confusing for Jason, who spends most of his time alone in his bedroom with no friends to hang out with. Jason and Whizzer become very close and it’s Whizzer who tells Jason to see the shrink as well. Trina and Mendel soon fall in and all seems fine with everyone, but suddenly Marvin and Whizzer break up, and then Whizzer starts getting sick.
As it’s the early 1980’s in NYC, it’s no surprise what disease Whizzer is struck with.
The show then unexpectedly turns very dark, so unlike the first half which was hilarious and fun!
When Falsettos first premiered on Broadway in 1992 theatre audiences (a lot of them gay men) were just getting over the multitude of deaths from the 1980’s AIDS crises, a chapter in LGBT history that is dark and grim. But through its storytelling via music (Pit-Pulford brings the house down with songs ‘Trina’s Song’ and ‘Holding to the Ground’), and a wicked sense of humour (the funniest moment is when the second half opens and Mendel points to an audience member and says ‘you are a homosexual.’)
Falsettos will set the right notes for your theatre-going experience. The cast is all wonderful (give Pitt-Pulford an award pronto).
This show, directed by Tara Overfield-Wilkinson, succeeds in it’s first showing in London in a venue where every seat is good, and with a very good cast.
A gay water polo team struggles to compete amidst personal dramas on their way to the Gay Games in the fun, camp and hilarious film The Shiny Shrimps.
In French with English subtitles, and directed by co-directors and co-authors Cédric Le Gallo (a real-life Shrimp) and Maxime Govare, ‘The Shiny Shrimps is a cross between Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Pride, with a road trip film interspersed with lots of melodrama!
When straight world champion swimmer Matthias Le Goff (Nicolas Gob) makes a homophobic remark on television, he tries to redeem himself, at the direction of the swimming federation, by being tasked to train The Shiny Shrimps – a Parisian gay water polo team (and purely not athletes) who are in the sport purely for the social aspect of it as well as to be able to perform dance routines and dress up in competitions. So Goff has a huge task ahead of him. all the meanwhile trying to impress his young daughter.
Other men on the team have their own issues; Cédric is married with two kids and his partner says the water polo team is taking him away from his family, while Jean has health issues he’s yet to divulge to the team, and another team member is newly out and is about to have the time of his life. We are too when the Shrimps travel, by bus, to the Gay Games in Croatia.
It’s a road trip like no other; they camp it up to the extreme while love, and sadly homophobia, comes into play. And once they get to the games they’ll attempt to make their mark in any way they can.
The Shiny Shrimps is so much fun to watch it’ll make you want to join some sort of sports team to experience what you’ve just seen in the film. And the cast are having lots of fun, with each actor perfectly suited for in roles. The Shiny Shrimps is une joie.
The final headline act the 2019 Underbelly Festival Southbank is the Australian circus cabaret act Rouge. The award-winning group is in a long line of acts that have played at the famous Southbank venue, the most memorable of them Little Death Club – a naughty but nice cabaret act from Berlin that tore the house on fire. While Rouge doesn’t quite attain this level of scandal (and nudity), they give the audience what they want: jaw-dropping acrobatics, skin, and lots and lots of chairs.
The cast includes the mind-bending Cyr wheel action and the phenomenal fire routines of Jessie Mckibbin, astonishing acrobatic feats from Lyndon Johnson, Liam DeJong and Madison Burleigh, aerial antics and more than a little cheek from dancer Paul Westbrook, plus the powerhouse operatic vocals of Issie Hart (who had laryngitis the night we were there).
The sexy Westbrook is the emcee for the evening – all he really needs to do is just stand on stage and that would be enough! But he’s got a job to do – not just to emcee but also to perform in some of the acrobatics – and perform he does!
Rouge is 60 minutes of twirling (the acts) and slurping (you – from drinks at the bar). And at the end of the show, you can meet the cast at the bar outside – what other show lets you do that? So go on and experience a naughty night – at the hands of Rouge!
Rouge plays at Underbelly until Sunday 15 September 2019. Book tickets here
Brad Pitt star in Columbia Pictures “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Nutshell – Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio together for almost three hours and one of them goes shirtless… not enough? Well, this is Quentin Tarantino’s 9th and apparently, his penultimate movie a homage to the last Golden days of Hollywood, set in 1969 with the Manson murders of Sharon Tate & friends washing around in the background. Two hours of fantastically nostalgic beautiful cinematography & set dressing followed by some standard Tarantino blood lust at the denouement making it possibly the directors weirdest film to date. Leo is a fading movie star and Pitt is his stuntman. The former lives in the Hollywood Hills right next to a house just let to Mr Polanski and Ms Tate,
Running Time – 161 Minutes so bring a cushion – Cert – 18, and yes you get plenty of language and violence for your buck.
Tagline – ‘The 9th Film From Quentin Tarantino’ yes that is what they are going with to get you through the doors.
The Gay UK Factor – The two leading men are and have always been gay icons and eye candy ever since we saw the unknown Brad’s abs in Thelma & Louise where he was playing an escort (we should be so lucky) and DiCaprio ‘s hair was wafting in the wind of a certain sinking ship. In many ways, they have never looked fitter than they do in this film and the camera lingers on every part of their body with a gorgeous soft glow throughout especially their (and everyone’s else feet) which has always been a kink of QT’s so heaven for foot fetishists everywhere. Brad Pitt has an elongated shirtless scene which is a distinct highlight and later LDC jumps into the pool to compete for you masturbatory fantasies.
Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie (Hugely underused), Emile Hersh, Dakota Fanning plus cameos from Bruce Dern, Al Pacino & Damian Lewis and the very sexy hunks that are Luke Perry & Timothy Olyphant.
Key Player – This is the writer, director & co-producer show and if you like QT then you have been waiting for his new movie for a while, if not a fan then the weird structure here may not convert you. It is definitely his most beautiful but is it lazy, overlong or indulgent… probably a bit of both.
Budget – $90 Million and you often wonder how he produces such a fantastic 1969 look right throughout the film so cheaply, simply it looks a lot more expensive. QT films always make money (except the niche Jackie Brown) and at double the cost at the Box Office already then this is a hit but will it out gross Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained we think that running time and confusing word of mouth may halt it?
Best Bit 1.28 mins; A very tense and languid confrontation between Pitt’s stunt man character and some of the Manson families followers on their derelict ranch home. As this film is not factual you don’t really know where this or other scenes are going and it is all the better for that. Rewriting history could be not big and not clever but it sure works here.
Worst Bit – 0.40 mins; The Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski scenes are a bit undercooked and feel tacked on although they are of course vital to the film. Sharon has a long drawn out visit to a cinema to see a movie she is starring in which is certainly where the editor’s scissors should have started to maybe bring this marathon movie down under two hours.
Little Secret – This maybe QT’s ‘9th film’ according to publicity but in fact, he has 22 directing credits and even more writing credits at 30… he has acted in 37 movies but it is difficult to remember any of them as he is not gonna give Daniel Day-Lewis a run for his money. Most of his films are 18 Certificate including this one.
We checked the most successful 18 movies in History and found that there is only one ‘Horror’ film in the top 20 (Hannibal) the rest are made up of films there sometimes for violence but most commonly for swearing and the number one 18 Cert adult film of all time surprisingly is The Wolf Of Wall Street… no sex, no violence, no horror just Leo DiCaprio’s filthy mouth did his Mum not wash it out with soap enough when he was young.
Further Viewing –Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, The Hateful 8, Kill Bill 1 and 2, Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained you get the idea plus anything by Robert Rodriguez or Chris Nolan, Helter Skelter, The Manson family, The Black Dahlia, Hollywoodland and in fact any film that glorifies Hollywood’s past from Sunset Boulevard right through to La La Land.
Any Good – Is it Tarantino’s best? No, but it is certainly way ahead of most other movies and a pleasant change to endless sequels and instantly recognisable blockbuster fare. In one word this is Art and it is not about making money although it will do that. Its structure is strange the longest build-up in cinema history slowly VERY SLOWLY introducing us to all its characters as they head into the last 30-minute typical Tarantinoesque showdown which is a major shot to the gut when the style change finally arrives.
This reviewer is not the biggest QT fan but we enjoyed it more than any of the other eight but it is not for everyone as we said at the top this film is weird. If he directs another film it will be a Star Trek of all things and we hope he does as we cannot wait to see what he makes of a sci-fi franchise but we bet Kirk calls Spock a fucking big-eared c..t at some point as they get beamed up.
★★★ | The Girl On The Train – National Tour / Birmingham
Based on the best selling book by Paula Hawkins, The Girl On The Train stars Samantha Womack (Eastenders) as Rachel Watson, a troubled woman who romanticises about a couple she sees from her commuter train window every day, as she imagines the life she could have had. When one of the couple goes missing, she finds herself drawn into the mystery; but the gaps in her memory and her inability to separate out reality from her fantasy leads to her becoming a suspect in the woman’s disappearance.
Samantha Womack is entertaining as Rachel and she is ably supported by a small but proficient cast. The set changes are fairly slick, the set is sufficiently detailed, and the lighting and sound design all compliment the mood of the piece.
But for a thriller to work, it’s the story that counts, and over the course of the first act, the plot developed nicely and pulled in the audience, with a narrative which blurred fact and fiction, and imagination and reality; but as the second act unfolded the story became increasingly convoluted with a few too many red herrings and clumsy plot twists for it to maintain its momentum.
Having not read the book or seen the film, I’m not sure whether fans of either will find enjoyment or disappointment in this play, but as a standalone piece of theatre, it is competently presented and entertaining enough, but not a show which I would imagine will go on to become a classic.
The Girl on the Train is at The Alexandra, Birmingham until the 31st August 2019. Book tickets now
This review was taken from a showing at Sheffield and does not account for any cast changes or changes to the direction since then.*
The ten beautiful drag queens who will be competing for the title of UK’s first Drag Race Superstar have been ru-vealed.
(C) BBC
Handpicked for their huge slaying potential by Mama Ru herself, this eclectic group of queens are the perfect showcase of what the UK drag scene has to offer.
RuPaul says: “Each of the UK queens is so unique, so courageous and so special. I can’t wait for the UK – and the world – to fall in love with them the same way I did.”
The US Series of RuPaul’s Drag Race is a cult global phenomenon and since the announcement of the first UK adaptation of the show there has been frenzied fan speculation about the line-up.
Introducing the ten competing queens: Baga Chipz, Blu Hydrangea, Crystal, Cheryl Hole, Divina De Campo, Gothy Kendoll, Sum Ting Wong, Scaredy Kat, The Vivienne, Vinegar Strokes.
(C) BBC Baga Chipz(C) BBC Blu Hydrangea(C) BBC Cheryl Hole(C) BBC Gothy Kendoll(C) BBC Vinegar Strokes(C) BBC Divina De Campo(C) BBC Scaredy Kat(C) BBC Crystal(C) BBC Sum Ting Wong(C) BBC The Vivienne
All ten queens will be taking part in Manchester Pride on Saturday 24 August for their first official appearance.
Start your engines, and may the best woman win!
The RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, including RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, is produced by World of Wonder for BBC Three.
Drag Race UK is commissioned by Fiona Campbell, Controller BBC Three and Kate Phillips, Controller, BBC Entertainment. The BBC Commissioning Editor is Ruby Kuraishe, and the Executive Producers are RuPaul Charles, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Tom Campbell, Sally Miles and Bruce McCoy from World of Wonder.
A global phenomenon, the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise is available in 193 countries through network partners and World Of Wonder’s streaming service WOW Presents Plus. The series was nominated in the US for a record-breaking 23 Emmys, with nine wins including Outstanding Reality-Competition Program and Outstanding Host for a Reality-Competition Program for the first time in Emmy history.
